The end of Black White: the project
Here are my overall/concerns with the show:
1. It was unfair of the producers to make them live together. Living with people you don't know would be hard on anybody. They could've gone through the project living next door to each other and having scheduled meetings each day or every other day. This way, they could "pass" and then go home and reflect on it and really say what they felt without feeling like they would offend someone. The person I felt bad for the most in this situation was Rose because I think she actually got it, but she couldn't express it without upsetting her parents.
2. There were some definite family issues with the Sparks that didn't need to be played out on TV. The fact that Nick had been kicked out of school (and how stereotypical was that) didn't need to be played out on tv. That was a black cloud on that family that only served to re-enforce a negative stereotype about young AA men; they're only interested in bling, living a gangster lifestyle, they don't care about education, and they're all lazy. I was extremely unhappy that they showed that. The only good thing that came out of that was that maybe they discovered that he like photography and that middle class AA families can see that it's not just the poor kids who give up on college. Poor kids sometimes give up because they can't afford college. Kids who come from middle-class families don't always have that obstacle. But sometimes they don't see the value of education because they take things for granted. And I didn't understand why the Sparks didn't seem to do more about clearing Nick's name and getting him back in school.
3. I hadn't considered the fact that instead of Bruno being racist, he is classist. he can't understand the life of anyone outside of the middle class. I also think that his opinions are common of kids of immigrants. Early on, he said that his parents were immigrants and that they worked hard to build a successful life. I think that immigrant parents, in general, do a good job instilling work ethics in their kids. However, I sort of agree with Brian in that Bruno didn't understand any other culture because he didn't want to understand it. I do think that the producers took Bruno to some places that were stereotypical. The meeting that he and Carmen went to meet that lady was an event for women. So he really didn't fit in because he was a man. On the flipside, I couldn't believe that he didn't see the racism at the county western bar. It was so obvious.
4. The jumper cables thing was odd. If the cameras hadn't been there and they didn't look like two middle class black men, I think that the outcome would've been different. If they had looked like Nick (with baggy pants and bling) and the car had looked beat up, I don't know if people would've helped them because they would have suspected that they were being set up.
5. Rose seemed to learn the most throughout the whole project. I think she'll stay in contact with the Sparks. Hopefully, she will continue her poetry.
6. Overall, I think that the producers did a bad job on this project. They pulled out all the stereotypes and then didn't try to squash any of them. They focused more on the white people learning something negative and the black people learning nothing at all. None of the exercises the Sparks family went through were meant for them to learn about the "problems" associated with being white besides having "boring hobbies" like knitting.
I'm glad the show is over. I think they could've done a better job with it. I don't think it's fair that they made these two families the official representatives for each race. It was just too heavy a burden.
